Government has no plan to close bars and pubs

The local government has no plan to close bars, a measure which has been implemented by the Hong Kong SAR, according to Lo Iok Long, medical director of the Conde de São Januário Hospital who made the announcement during Friday’s daily press conference.

Starting from 6 p.m. Friday, the Hong Kong government has been ordering the closure of bars and pubs due to a further spread of Covid-19, “which originated from people who had been to bars.”

According to Lo, the Macau SAR government has been watching closely Macau’s Covid-19 development and has been following up on neighboring regions’ policies and measures.

Currently, Macau’s cases are all imported, resulting from the return of overseas Macau local residents.

“We have enough measures to detect cases at the port. We put overseas returnees into quarantine. We do not foresee a community spread situation in Macau,” said Lo.

Lo urged the public to avoid gathering, adding that, even in case of a gathering, social distancing should be kept, and face masks should always be on.

“We must look at the local situation. If it suggests that there must be new policies, then there will be new policies. Right now, we don’t have very good reasons to change the current policies, which means we are not closing bars or pubs,” said Lo.

Currently, both Macau and Zhuhai are implementing mandatory 14-day quarantine for the majority of the arrivers.

As of press time, the two governments have not come up with more restrictions and there are no signs indicating the possibilities of new policies, the local government said during today’s press con. In Zhuhai, reported Covid-19 cases are all imported cases.

In response to the development of Covid-19, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau plans to hold kindergarten central registration interview in May.

According to DSEJ representative Ng Mei Kei, head of the Division of Pre-School and Primary Education said that arranging the interview in Macau aims at ensuring new students can enrol in school in September.

The interview will take more than half a month longer than the past.

58-year-old becomes Macau’s 42th Covid-19 case

A 58-year-old Macau local man has become the 42th confirmed Covid-19 case in Macau, the local government announced Friday.

The man, who is also a Hong Kong resident, is self-employed. On March 16, he flew to Hong Kong from Bangkok, Thailand, where he stayed for a short business trip.

Since March 16 and until March 30, he had been staying in Hong Kong, in a shared office, both working and living.

On March 30, he took the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Shuttle bus to Macau. He was immediately arranged to Sheraton hotel from the port in order to go through a 14-day medical observation. His health condition was normal when arrived at the Macau port as well as when he was checked by Macau’s Health Bureau (SSM)’s workers inside the port.

On April 3^rd, he tested positive for Covid-19. At the current stage, the patient is not suffering any discomfort.

In the meantime, the mainland health department reported to the Macau local government that two Macau local residents in mainland China have been confirmed infected with Covid-19. The two persons are believed to have been infected in the United States. They are a 57-year-old woman and a 56-year-old man who flew from New York to Tokyo on March 17, and from Tokyo to Guangzhou on March 19. At the Guangzhou airport, they tested positive for the virus.